Fethiye Street Urban Redesign & Landscape Renewal Project
Fethiye Street stands as one of Izmit’s most significant urban memory corridors, weaving together the city’s historical layers with its contemporary social and cultural life. For decades, it has served not only as a commercial spine but also as a symbolic route connecting the collective memories of the city and its residents. Following the transformations before and after the August 17, 1999 earthquake, the street evolved into a space where past, present, and future converge, making it a focal point for urban regeneration.
Urban Identity and Design Vision
The project approaches Fethiye Street as a dynamic movement axis within the metropolitan fabric: a place where residents meet, pause, observe, and engage with culture. The main design intent is to enrich the street’s transitional nature with focal points for social, cultural, artistic, and recreational activities, while enhancing its architectural and landscape quality.
By transforming the façade silhouette into a refined architectural layer and creating public gathering spaces, the design strengthens the commercial vitality of the street while preserving and reinterpreting its historic identity.
Integration of Landscape and Architecture
The proposal merges landscape and architectural elements into a contextually unified system. Key decisions include:
- Functional and recyclable infrastructure systems to ensure long-term sustainability.
- Permeable paving surfaces for improved water management.
- Joint detailing repurposed as micro-habitats, providing drinking and feeding areas for local fauna.
- Urban furniture - seating units and table surfaces - seamlessly integrated with the design language.
- Three canopy types (glass, enclosed, pergola), designed in colors responsive to the street’s character, incorporating birdhouse modules to preserve the natural habitat.
- A pocket stage for cultural events, such as cinema and theater performances, added to an unused area of Feridun Ozbay Street at the request of local residents.
- Public amphitheater stairways, creating both circulation and gathering opportunities.
Activation of Public Space
The project redefines the street as a network of activity nodes:
- Theater and cinema stage: supporting the cultural axis and attracting diverse audiences.
- Play and experience areas: offering interactive spaces for children and youth.
- Historic bath integration: preserving heritage while enriching the visitor experience.
- City Park connection: creating a seamless pedestrian link between the street and green public space.
These nodes are strategically positioned to encourage pedestrian flow, create varied urban topographies, and stimulate social interaction.
Sustainable Infrastructure and Planting Strategy
A hidden water channel and drainage system was reimagined to manage stormwater and wastewater sustainably. Planting design reinforces the green identity of the street:
- Along vehicle and pedestrian routes: Betula utilis, Tilia tomentosa, Acer platanoides.
- From Fethiye Street to City Park: Albizia julibrissin, Bauhinia variegata ‘Candida’, Carpinus betulus ‘Fastigiata’, Celtis australis, Erica carnea L., Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘White Cloud’, Prunus cerasifera ‘Pisardii’.
These species were selected for aesthetic variation, seasonal interest, and adaptability to the local climate, creating a resilient and visually engaging streetscape.
Cultural Memory and Urban Experience
"I could tell you how many steps a staircase has, the angle of the arches, or what kind of lead sheets cover the roofs, but I already know that in the end I will have told you nothing. Because what makes a city is not these things, but the relationship between the size of the space it occupies and what has happened in it... The city absorbs this wave of memories like a sponge, and grows. A city does not speak its past; it holds it in the pieces of itself-in the corners of streets, in the bars of windows, in the railings of stairs, and in the written history that it keeps under its feet, like the lines of a hand."- Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities | Cities and Memory 3
Quoting Italo Calvino’s reflections on cities and memory, the project recognizes that a city’s identity is not merely in its physical structures, but in the relationship between its spatial form and the events it has witnessed. Fethiye Street is treated as a living archive - a place that carries traces of time in its corners, railings, and façades, much like the lines in a palm.
The design thus positions the street as a cultural and experiential corridor where heritage meets contemporary life, fostering a continuous dialogue between architecture, nature, and memory.
